The Masked Man and the Girl
by Lunaiasu
Summary: Lura is taken from her home near Tazmily Village to serve the needs of New Pork City. However, things don't go exactly to the Pigmasks' plans...


Lura looked over at the stranger. Who-no, what-was he? He jerked his head to look at her, and in doing so he revealed a bright flash of orange hair. The sight was soon gone. The one eyebrow visible was orange too and was furrowed in a scowl that only showed in his eyebrow and his one emerald-green, almond-shaped eye. The other was hidden by a nearly opaque visor that hung over his right eyebrow down to the lower right lobe of his nose.

Her lower right leg tensed as it often did when she got the sense that someone was about to make a scathing remark. Instead he looked away after glaring at her, and she looked away too with cheeks hot. As much as she wanted to move, she couldn't with these shackles on her. Her leg relaxed, and as she did so she lowly hummed "Inescapeable". He looked at her with such a confused expression she stopped humming at once and laughed so hard her body shook.

"So who are you anyway?" she asked after she had gotten a hold of herself. His expression turned stony again, and he looked away. She could swear she saw a blush appear on his face, as fast as a flash of lightning, only this one turned the white sky red instead of white on black.

"That's the Commander," the white-coated-pig-faced!- man behind her snarled. "Commander of what?" she replied insolently, and this earned her a sharp thwack to the side of her head. The Commander turned his head and looked to her. "Leave her be," he said softly to the Pigface. She widened her dark blue eyes in surprise.

His voice was a little bit rusty. Did he never talk at all? If that was true, it was flattering that he was talking for her. Her mouth went dry as she looked over him. He was hardly out of boyhood, and strong, and-What was that on his arm?!

"It's my cannon," he said, looking at her. That green eye was like a child's. At the youngest, she would say he was thirteen, maybe fourteen. Innocence taken, she noted, but for what? "How long have you had it?" she asked, trying not to let her voice tremble.

"As long as I can remember."

Remember. The word was circling in her mind like an owl to its hollow as the Pigface unshackled her from the thing they were riding in to his arm. "Move and I'll kill you," he snarled when he shackled her to his arm. The Commander stayed silent and walked with them, though keeping his eyes to his boots. A great, yet disturbing, sight greeted her as they walked past a sign titled New Pork City: Population: 189.

Many lights blinded her, and she shut her eyes tightly. The Pigface noted, and cuffed her on the side of her head. Her eyes jolted open. Suddenly the lights turned off, revealing the bright shine of the full moon. "Sit," the Pigface commanded. She did so, and he removed the shackle from his arm.

"You will be subjected to sleep at night, underneath the full moon. Every half hour there will be a shriek, and you must rise, repeating your name while you march. Follow the path of the moon while you do so." She stared at him. Moon blinking, only with humans. Ingenious. The Pigface turned on his heel and walked away. The Commander followed him, but looked back. "Bye," she said softly. He mouthed the word back to her, and left. But he looked back again.

He couldn't sleep.

Rolling over, he retracted his cannon so it wouldn't hurt his side. He stared at the black wall, remembering how in the day it was a navy blue, but at night it was black. The thought of the color blue triggered his memory. Large blue eyes filled with laughter. And then, even farther, a pair of deep brown filled with love. A shriek, blood. The color red. He shut his real eye tightly, trying to fight it away. Dark green scales. Pain. The silver flash of a knife, bouncing with a ching off those scales.

His eye snapped open, and he rolled, putting both his legs over the side of the bed. His hips, torso, and head was still on the bed. He looked at the ceiling. Glowing white. A small, musical voice drifted from the heat vent. "Shame, on me," it sang, " na na na na, na na na naa." He listened closely.

"To need, release," then that 8-note tune, "and control, a plea," 8-note tune. "I-I-I wanna go-o-o, all the way-ay-ay, takin' all my freak tonight," it sang. Evidently someone had been woken up by the singing, and called a Pigmask to deal with it. "Come on, girl, come along, now..."

Then a scream as the girl fought and lost as the Pigmask called for backup. "NO! NO, DON'T YOU DARE T-TAKE-" The scream faded away.

And then a louder scream as someone put a syringe in her arm and pressed down the plunger.


End file.
